Thermalright Venomous-X RT Cooler

For as long as Benchmark Reviews has tested CPU coolers, the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme (TRUE) has been a top contender. Although the TRUE leaves behind a very long legacy of revisions and changes, Thermalright has moved on with an improved design that borrows from established technology. The Thermalright Venomous-X is the fruit of those labors, and concentrates six nickel-plated copper 6mm heat-pipe rods into a staggered 'U' layout placed among dense aluminum "bent winglet" finsink plates.

There are two versions of the Thermalright Venomous-X: a standard version without any fans, and the $68 Thermalright Venomous-X RT which include one 120mm cooling fan and AMD mounting hardware.

Aside from the improved Venomous-X heatsink design, Thermalright has introduced a new high-pressure bolt-through mounting system they call 'Pressure Vault'. This bracket system is only sold with the Thermalright Venomous-X heatsink, but with enough feedback from consumers Thermalright may soon offer it separately for previous heatsink products. The Thermalright Venomous-X RT heatsink support the most current Intel LGA775/1156/1333 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3 sockets, while the standard Venomous-X version requires an additional $10 for the AMD mounting kit that extends compatibility to Athlon and Phenom processors.

Considerably better than previous TRUE heatsinks, the Thermalright Venomous-X receives a polished nickel finish on the contact base and removes the need for lapping. The extremely high-pressure mounting bracket system that's paired to the flat polished contact surface means that only a thin application of low viscosity thermal paste such as the included Chill-Factor TIM will offer the best results. Because the contact base uses a convex design, Thermalright suggests that enthusiasts avoid lapping the already-polished surface.

Comments

IÃ‚Â´m puzzled about V6 GT heatsink,what caused the loss in performance? Could it be the fan has less CFM?? Or it is the static air pressure?? or another thing that i cannot think?Aside from that great test, as good as always, and still help me emphasizing that i did a good thing buying scythe mugen 2.

There's no doubt that the Mugen 2 was a good investment... it's a great cooler for very little money. The V6 GT has two high-output fans on it to begin with, configured in a push/push set, so it's understandable to see performance decrease with one higher-output fan.

It's simple: the Cooler Master V6 GT's stock fans provide a lot more airflow than the single Yate Loon fan. Base on the fan specifications, airflow drops by about 50% in this case, so the cooler's performance suffers. The V6GT represents a design trend in coolers that provides good performance with a relatively small heatsink by simply pushing a lot of air through it. You'll probably see more of this, since plastic and fans are cheaper than copper and aluminum.

The V6 simply doesn't have what it takes to be a top notch product. Its too small and the build quality is not very good. The problem is if you turn the stock fans down performance figures will drop pretty quick.

Sure it does. The build quality on the sample I tested was excellent-- flat, well-finished base; perfectly ven fins, and nice little details like the rubber anti-vibration pads on the snap-on shrouds that hold the fans. The stock V6 fans are PWM controlled, so let your motherboard decide how fast they should be run, and you'll get a very good combination of balance and noise. The performance with the stock fans is excellent, too. My only complaint about the cooler is its high price.

How come the Titan Fenrir was in instead of the Thermaltake Frio? The Thermaltake Frio did better than the ProlimaTech Megahalems in stock fan test and a little worse than the Mugen 2 with the Yate Loon D12SH-12. Are you using one or two Yate Loon D12SH-12? I'm sure I'm not the only that would like to see temperatures with both one and two high-output fans on there.

Usually it's because of time contraints. If we had unlimited time, every single heatsink ever made would be tested for each article... but that's just not the case. We've already reviewed the Frio in our cooling section, so take a look there: benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=519&Itemid=62

It would be awesome to see pictures of the heatsinks in the computer setup in the future, I tried my thermaltake frio with the air blowing up but it blocked the first 2 ram slots, so I had to turn it where it blows outside the case since the computer would be faster in dual channel mode than single channel mode

Are there any plans to do a similar review, maybe smaller in scale, for those coolers that use 92mm fans instead? Reason I ask is that some mATX cases like the NZXT Vulcan have clearance issues with a good many 120mm systems even with the added room of special side panels. Consider as well that many have even released revised designs that will work on LGA-1156 and LGA1366 sockets including those from AMD with a sample list here:

I have wanted a writer to take on the 92mm segment for over a year now. Apparently the threat of constant work with unreasonably tight tolerances has dissuaded everyone on staff. That and it's boring beyond belief. Still, I have my hopes.

I would love to see a system for rating the mounting hardware on each review. There are a couple heatsinks I'm really liking but the hardware uses pushpins (Cogage True Spirit) or is a mini erector set (Mugen 2). I really think a Cogage True Spirit with ProLimatechs brackets would be the best.

Corsair H50,.....Asetek LCLC (they actually make the H50 for corsair) and the ECO A.L.C. ECO-R120 CPU Cooler. All are water cooling solutions and all are relatively low profile.I have two of the Asetek LCLC's (stands for: Low Cost Liquid Cooling) here and they work really well. I added extra fans to both of mine for a push/pull effect. I also have a Scythe Big Shuriken SCBSK-1000 120mm CPU Cooler on a Linux box and it's a very low profile cooler.

"Because of their density, metals are the best conductors of thermal energy"

Actually that's wrong the best material is Diamond but an HS made of diamond would cost and absolute fortune.... you should have said best Perfomance/cost material is metal of which the best is Gold (best $$$$/Performance = Copper)for now atleast until they make Carbon nano tube materials more readily available